Get Inspired by These Three CSR Campaigns

Written by Melissa Manthos

In the last three lessons we have learnt what Corporate Social Responsibility is and its effects in marketing. Let’s now have a look at three effective (and brilliant) CSR campaigns that have happened in the past couple of years, and perhaps get a little inspired by them!

MTV – Look Different

In April 2014 MTV launched ‘Look Different’, an initiative that aimed to bring to light the gender, race and the anti-LGBT prejudices through on air and digital content.

The reason behind this CSR campaign is because, through research, MTV found out that only 30% of their audience ever talked about race while growing up, and that half of their audience doesn’t feel comfortable to have conversation around gender, LGBT issues and race. They therefore came up with this initiative that tackles issues that are relevant and that their audience can relate to.

The interactive website promotes MTV’s mission to improve the civil and social life of youths through the use of videos, links to articles that have celebrities as a point of reference and quizzes. Through the use of videos they show the hidden racial, gender and anti-LGBT bias that are present around us all the time. You can also find a week long ‘Racial Bias Cleanse’ that aims at helping people working on their own biases.

Why not take part in the campaign by simply taking the Implicit Bias Test to uncover your own biases!

The Walt Disney Company – Helping Nature

The Walt Disney Company was named one of the CSR leaders in 2009 according to the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Reputation Institute, and has the reputation of being one of the most well known organisations practicing CSR.

One of Disney’s main focuses is the environment, and throughout the years they have developed different projects and ideas that aim at saving and preserving the earth. Let’s have a look at how they are doing this.

In 1995 Disney founded the Disney Conservation Fund that aims to protect the planet by providing financial support for studies, protections and development of wildlife, habitats and community conservation. Disney also aims at educating kids by creating experiences that connect them to the beauty of nature through exploration and discovery. To this day, Disney has donated $27 million to support conservation projects in 114 countries.

Disneynature was launched in April 2008, and its aim is to bring together world’s top nature filmmaker and work together to create a variety of wildlife stories to share on the big screen so as to educate and inspire their audience.

Check out this year Disneynature trailer, Monkey Kingdom:

The Ice Bucket Challenge

One of the first things that come to mind when thinking of 2014 is probably the Ice Bucket Challenge. How can we forget it? Our social media home pages were full of videos of people nominating and throwing buckets of ice water on each other.

What may have seem like something weird to do at first, turned out to be a brilliant way to raise awareness and money. People were encouraged to either build awareness by throwing freezing water on themselves and share the video online, or donate money to the ALS foundation.

The initiative started by former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates who was diagnosed with ALS, and soon after became a phenomenon that broke the internet.

The ice bucket challenge became so viral that many different companies, celebrities, and also politicians took part in the campaign, and the results were amazing. The Ice Bucket Challenge has raised more than $100 million for ALS.

The reason why this campaign worked out so well is because it was simple yet efficient. It didn’t require much effort, all you needed was a bucket and some ice. Anyone could to take part, anywhere in the world; it didn’t limit itself to just a place or a group age. It was easy to share and entertaining for the viewers, building awareness by simply watching a twenty seconds video of a friend. Small and big companies were invited to take part and donate, and what was amazing is that many brands wanted to join in and be associated to this CSR campaign.

If you haven’t seen it already, check out this video of the CEOs of Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon taking part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

We all wish to make a difference, in some way or another, but it really isn’t all that difficult. You do not need to be a multimillionaire company to fight for a cause that you strongly believe in. If you need help starting off your CSR campaign, revise one of our first CSR lessons and get started.

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Melissa is the definition of multiculturalism: she is half French and half Greek, has lived for over a decade in Libya and her mother tongue is Italian. She is a social media freak who loves writing and photography. You can find her 365 days a year at the beach, her natural habitat.

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